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Owner of South Boston's Lincoln Tavern wants to build similar place across the street

Michael Conlon, who owns the Lincoln Tavern on West Broadway, hopes to expand across the street by turning the Pan Asia Restaurant into a new neighborhood tavern.

Conlon told the Boston Licensing Board today he has an agreement to buy the Chinese/Japanese/Thai restaurant at 414 W. Broadway. He said he will pay $300,000 just for its liquor license.

Conlon said he is still trying to come up with a name and an exact format for his latest venture. His attorney, Dennis Quilty, though, said the basic idea will be "a friendly neighborhood tavern, casual dining type of establishment."

The board decides tomorrow whether to approve the sale. The mayor's office as well as several city councilors, including South Boston district councilor Bill Linehan, support the sale.

In addition to the Lincoln Tavern, Conlon's Eat Drink Laugh owns several other restaurants, including the Paramount in South Boston and West on Centre in West Roxbury.

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it is so punishingly loud, even when it's not full, that we don't go nearly as often as we might. I hope Conlon makes the new place attractive to customers who don't like to scream at their dining companions to be heard. That's a place I might hit a couple of times a week.

Agreed. I read the piece somewhere (Dig?) last week about noise in local restaurants and how expensive it is to fix, and was shocked, shocked to read that some owners cultivate that underneath-a-freight-train level of noise.

I think for veteran restaurateurs, the excuse that "We designed the space and didn't realize it would be so loud" is bullshit: they know exactly what they are doing, and the loudness is purposeful. One, it repels the old farts who make a scene less glamorous and youthful. Loud = lively, happening, hot. Quiet = lifeless, square, dull. Two, it discourages table camping, lingering after your meal is over. You squeeze more turns out of an evening's service if people get in, drink and eat, then quickly GTFO.

In my food-geek circle, we're speculating on how long it will be before restaurant-worker advocates start bring class-action lawsuits to address the workplace hazard that is hearing damage and other adverse health effects from constant exposure to jet-engine-level noise. This is how smoking bans in restaurants and bars got enacted: not as a public health issue, but a worker safety issue.

That was the one I read. I think the Merrill & Co. position that it's loud on purpose is terrible. I don't go to dinner to shout at my wife across a table, and I don't go back to places where that is required.

I was the booking geek at the Middle East in like 1990 after my friend who invented it was hospitalized.

And part of my 'job' was hanging around during shows. You could smoke in ginmills then.

And as the booking geek, I'd be holding court with the various music locals and scheming show dates.

I'd wake up the next day with laryngitis in addition to the requisite beer hangover and I eventually figured out it was because you end up shouting to carry on a conversation but don't realize it as the warm fog of boozing envelopes.

Good Chinese food and quicker delivery than teriyaki house. I'm also wondering how many of the same exact bar broadway can hold? Judging by the crowds at stats and Lincoln it's apparent the demand is there. I'd just like to see a bit a variety in establishments

I think you can safely say in terms of food and drinks, Stats = Beer Garden = Playwright. I haven't been in Shenanigan's lately, but I'd bet money it belongs in that group. They stamp these out with a cookie cutter all over Boston.

Amhrein's is far older than any of those places and occupies a unique old-school niche, despite a makeover ten or so years ago.

Lincoln and Stephanie's have little in common with the rest of those in terms of their food, drinks, and ambiance.

I dunno, my impression of Lincoln was a more expensive Playwright, they try to spin craft cocktails with your typical broadway bar liquors, and the food didn't seem any better either.

Amhreins has really fallen off in the past year or so as well in terms of food quality, but the bar still holds that old school niche.

Local 149 was a great place for solid food and cocktails, but all of its experienced bar staff have left for greener pastures, and the food has definitely slipped the past few times we stopped down there.

Haven't been to Stehphanie's yet, but the wife was impressed when she stopped in for drinks one night. Will probably never go back to Franklin after a night with absolutely terrible service from the bartender, p that night despite being 1 of 3 people at the bar, another customer had to walk down to the other end to summon the bartender.

We've found ourselves often heading downtown to jm curley, or sometimes over to picco/gaslight a lot lately.

HaHa - doesn't fit in....It's been there for 100 years or so. And it's jammed every time I go in there - but what do I know - I'm just one of those OFS who apparently are mourning the loss of greasy Chinese food.

Pan Asia has gone downhill the last couple of years. The staff are rude, the food is not nearly as good as it once was. If you read yelp reviews you see its been downhill. The last time I was there I saw cockroaches and a mouse trap behind the bar. I have not gone back since.
It will be nice to have a new addition in the area.

My "route" in Southie only goes back to early 1900s when my grandfather worked in the sugar factory there to earn money to bring my father, uncles, and grandmother over to the USofA. I've gone to the Lincoln as many times as I've ordered food from Pan Asia, which is exactly twice. Pan Asia, well, their version of Thai was pretty awful both times and, being vegetarian, I was not excited over the mac'n'cheese at Lincoln. Southie did lose one Chinese restaurant recently to developers who are going to knock down the corner at D and Broadway and build up higher than one story. There are two other Chinese restaurants on the same block as Lincoln (three if you include the combo Mexican/Chinese) but these are mainly take out places whereas Pan Asia is a sit down place with take out. Would LOVE a Thai place.

Taverns though are a tradition here. I remember walking to the subway to get to college in the early 70s and passing, as I recall, 13 taverns on West Broadway, so it's just in keeping with old Southie to have another tavern open.

No, last name I remember was Golden House... but it has had more names I think. D and W Broadway... kitty corner to Burger King. The low one story that housed the Korean grocery store, the Chinese restaurant, the corner store that has been a few things over the year and around the corner a little market that has been closed for years... going going...

That is going to be pretty strange when they knock down the old garage near Rite Aid and keep South Ocean... sort of like knocking down the buildings next to the Cornerstone for a luxury hotel. Odd couples.

Your comments are everywhere, and they are pretty entertaining in their condescension.

You seem pretty obsessed with your all-consuming hatred of us locals (and your ridiculous comments about American Indians is typical of you). Yes, I am a native of South Boston, my grandparents immigrated here 100 years ago. I am a native because I was born here.

The suggestion that OFS don't appreciate and patronize the new establishments is ridiculous. Gentrification is good in many ways, but also comes at a cost for some people. There are three groups of people in SB now - the new young people, the people in the housing projects, and us SB natives who own property, because many of the people who rented have been priced out.

There is a large middle class in SB who has always been here and since we own property, we won't be squeezed out. I do not resent the new people because they are not the cause of the change, they are more a result of the several factors - the booming of Boston which is good for all of us, and that fact that it is a place that young people want to live. The developers took enormous advantage and have, IMO, gotten out of control, but that's something else.

Because we walk our dog we have met many of our new neighbors and they are great kids. I have six nieces and nephews who grew up outside the city but are back here. And about 8 of my son's roommates and teammates from college have moved here now.

Cities have to change and evolve or they die, nothing stays the same, but the flip side is fewer families, our youth sports leagues are way down in numbers because there are fewer kids, so those are the things that I hate to see change. But in the end it is all about money to be made, as usual.